In November, in an extensive interview with The Lawyer, Rees was brimming with confidence about his plans for reshaping the in-house team. In particular those plans included ramping up the role of in-house litigators at Shell.

But weeks later Rees was history. His sudden and unexplained departure, revealed exclusively by The Lawyer, sent shockwaves through the energy sector specifically and the legal market more generally.

An email announcement dated 10 January from Shell’s chief executive Ben Van Beurden, who only took the top job on 1 January, said that Rees’s tenure had ceased with immediate effect. No reason was given.